MEADOW LAKE — Stacey Lamothe’s week started off by discovering that he was $1 million richer and it only got better from there.
Two days after claiming his prize, the Meadow Lake resident and his wife welcomed a baby girl.
“I finally got to sleep last night,” he laughed while picking up his cheque. “I wasn’t sleeping right after I won or right after the baby was born.”
Lamothe’s winning ticket matched all seven digits —1, 16, 17, 22, 36, 40 and 48— on one of the Maxmillions prizes drawn on the Oct. 14 Lotto Max draw. He purchased his ticket a couple of days prior to the draw at the Fas Gas at 216 9th Ave. W in Meadow Lake.
Over a week after the draw, Lamothe returned to the same store to check his tickets.
He said that after scanning his first ticket – a non-winner – his next ticket revealed his $1 million prize. But Lamothe didn’t believe what he was seeing so he put it at the bottom of the pile and continued right on scanning.
His next ticket was a $2 winner. “That’s more like it,” he said to himself, noting while claiming his prize later that the amount “seemed much more realistic” to him.
He scanned his $1 million winning ticket again and still couldn’t believe it, so he called over a friend and said “I think this machine is crazy!” The two of them proceeded to scan his ticket a couple more times.
“My friend told me, ‘You won a million dollars!’” Lamothe recalled, but laughed that it still wasn’t enough for him to believe what was happening, so he brought his ticket to the cashier.
Once his win was confirmed using the cashier’s terminal, things started to sink in and he called his wife to share the news. When she told Lamothe that she was coming into town right away, he says he asked her “what for?” and noted it wasn’t like the windfall was coming out of the machine.
Lamothe said he has a few plans for his winnings.
“I’m going to finish building my house, and I want to take my kids to Vancouver,” he said, adding that he’s also looking forward to purchasing a new vehicle.
Sask Lotteries is the fundraiser for more than 12,000 sport, culture, recreation and community groups. Learn about games, jackpots, winning numbers and more at sasklotteries.ca.
— Submitted by Sask Lotteries
